Football League accept defeat over transfer window

The Football League have accepted defeat in their efforts to stop FIFA enforcing their transfer window restrictions across the board.

They will join Premiership clubs in operating under the constraints from this summer onwards.

The world governing body have dug their heels in and ordered all English clubs to abide by their ruling, meaning transfers will only be permissible in the off-season and during January.

Court action had been hinted at, in an effort to allow clubs from the Championship, League One and League Two to deal throughout the year.

But a new letter from Football League chairman Sir Brian Mawhinney to all member clubs was a direct recognition of FIFA’s authority.

In abiding by FIFA’s terms, the 72 Football League clubs will come into line with the Barclays Premiership, where the restrictions have been in place since the beginning of the 2001/02 campaign.

The news will inevitably be of serious concern to many clubs, who will be denied for the first time the opportunity to operate in the transfer market on their own terms, and at their convenience.

Effectively, the league authorities have backed off from an unseemly court battle with FIFA, which they were unlikely to win.

Football League director of operations Andy Williamson tonight told the Press Association: “There’s not going to be any further extended period of flexibility.

“This is the third season where the Premier League have applied transfer windows, where we’ve had an exemption. That will not apply any more.”

Reacting to the news, director of League Two club Bristol Rovers Kevin Spencer said: “This is bad news for clubs in the lower divisions.”

He added on www.bristolrovers.co.uk: “All clubs will have to operate with smaller squads, and it will place an even greater emphasis on youth systems, with younger players inevitably having to be called upon earlier than might otherwise be best for them should injuries or suspensions dictate.

“Having to trade only in transfer windows will have a massively negative impact on cashflow for clubs like Bristol Rovers, and the kind of steps that clubs like ourselves took last season by signing so many players on the old transfer deadline day in order to avoid relegation will no longer be possible.”